Why We Search for R.F.K.

Why, after 20 years, are we recalling the memory of Robert F. Kennedy? Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President four times and greatly loved, but we did not celebrate him in 1965. Why Robert Kennedy, who was cut down before he could reach the office?

In retrospect, it's clear that Robert Kennedy was the last major leader who allowed us to at least imagine we could realize the ideals of American politics. Successors have compelled us to mean and unworthy compromise. George McGovern and Jimmy Carter expressed compassion for the underdog but required us to accept national weakness. Richard Nixon offered international competence and strength, if only we would abandon idealism. Ronald Reagan offered a revived economy and military power, if we would overlook the disintegration of the underclasss.

Nowhere is this more evident than on the fundamental question of race. We rightly see Robert Kennedy as the last national leader able to command real trust from blacks and whites. Since his death we have chosen from a spectrum that offers us everything but dignity, self-respect and hope.

No leader today is willing to confront the reality of violent black crime and the debilitating fear and poisonous resentment it engenders. Nor does any leader offer serious attention to the growing underclass from which the crime proceeds. We avert our eyes from the thousands of children who are dying in the projects and ghettos of every major city.

For today's politicians, re-election is the supreme good. Avoiding controversy and truth, they abandon respect for politics and thus for themselves. Our dialogue on race is left to be dominated by figures like the Rev. Al Sharpton, which immeasurably degrades us all. Meanwhile, those of irreproachable sentiment, like Gov. Mario Cuomo, are immobile, seemingly transfixed by the immensity of the problems.

Robert Kennedy recalls for us that leaders can talk honestly and openly and that we can work, however painfully, toward a single, shared nation. He respected us and himself too much to utter the usual lies and evasions. The deeper his understanding grew, the more he was willing to lose votes by directly confronting white prejudice and injustice; he was blunt in warning his black supporters that lawlessness and violence were intolerable and would be swiftly punished. Because he was ready to offend and suffer criticism, we knew we could trust him in a tough spot.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Moral leadership challenges, upsets, threatens our security and the settled ways of life. We require that those who would exercise it be strong and free of corruption. Today's politicians, stuffing themselves with political-action committee contributions and oblivious to corruption, seem almost to have abandoned even an effort to elevate the nation's moral climate. So we look back to the moral capital that Robert Kennedy could draw from his integrity and from his bitter struggles against the Teamsters union and their corrupt allies in government.

We also remember Robert Kennedy for his tenderness. His thoughts and emotions were often blurted out, and sometimes they were harsh; yet he was always conscious that the speech of the powerful is the touch of a giant, and he was careful to be gentle when he dealt with the weak.

Finally, Robert Kennedy reminds us that the essential characteristic of political leadership is not talk, however fine, but action. Whether it was a national assault on organized crime or inventing and effecting a plan to redevelop ghetto neighborhoods, Robert Kennedy would do it.

In all the years I knew him, I never heard Robert Kennedy say, ''If only President Kennedy had lived, things would be different now.'' That to him would have been weakness. He would speak about uncomfortable subjects repeatedly, telling suburbanites what it was like for a child to grow up with rats in the bedroom; he never gave up. ''All this is our responsibility,'' he said, ''not just a nation's responsibility but yours and mine.''

Perhaps our search for Robert Kennedy means that we are preparing to again measure our leaders, and ourselves, by such a strong and solemn test. That would be a fit observance of the most responsible American political figure of our lifetime.

Adam Walinsky, a lawyer, was an assistant to Robert F. Kennedy at the Justice Department and the Senate from 1963 to 1968.

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports,
and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this op-ed appears in print on June 5, 1988, on Page 4004031 of the National edition with the headline: Why We Search for R.F.K. Today's Paper|Subscribe